Free Thought Solidarity Bulletin

FREETHOUGHT
SOLIDARITY BULLETIN #2

January 26, 2006

This Bulletin, edited and produced by Fred Whitehead, Kansas City, Kansas, USA for the International Committee to Protect Freethinkers (ICPF) is FREE.



ITEMS:

#1: Dr. Nittmann Case, Germany

#2: Judge Tosti Case, Italy

#3: Lafif Lakhdar Case, UK/Tunisia

#4: Quotation of the Day

#5: Resources

#1: DR. NITTMANN CASE, GERMANY

For several years, The Bund gegen Anpassung (Alliance against Conformity) has been waging a resolute campaign on behalf of Dr. Peter Nittmann, who while unemployed had a compulsory Church Tax withheld from his compensation payments. Such withholding was enforced by the German government over many decades, in part on the basis of the Concordat signed by the Nazis with the Vatican in 1933, still in effect today. While the government finally changed the law, effective in January, 2005, to end such withholding, they also refused to reimburse Dr. Nittmann or any of the other millions of non-church members.

Now an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights has been made, arguing that refusal to reimburse violates the European Convention on Human Rights articles on religious freedom, right to equal treatment, and right to property. The basic concept is that no one should be forced by any government to contribute to a religious organization against his express will.

Full information on the Nittmann case can be found at http://www.bund-gegen-anpassung.com/. (There is a section of the website in English.) Letters in support of Dr. Nittmann should be sent via postal mail to: The Registrar, European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe, F-67075, Strasbourg Cedex, France, stating the file number Application No 36798/05, NITTMANN./.Germany.

Please send a copy of your letter to the Bund gegen Anpassung, P.O. Box 254, D-79002, Freiburg, Germany, or e-mail it to http://us.f818.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=bund-gegen-anpassung@gmx.net.

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#2: JUDGE TOSTI CASE, ITALY

On November 18, 2005, Judge Luigi Tosti, age 57, was sentenced to 7 months in jail and a one year suspension, for his refusal to judge in the presence of religious signs inside the courtroom. A law enacted in1926 during the fascist period states that the crucifix must be on display in Italian courtrooms. Opposing this, Judge Tosti cited the Republican Constitution of 1947, which states that all citizens "are equal before the law, without consideration of sex, race, tongue, religion." A tribunal in Aquila, about 100 kilometres from Rome, rendered the sentence.

Hundreds of people have signed protest petitions in Europe. Now Michel Virard of Montreal, Canada has organized support from North America. For details, go to http://brightsquebec.org/index/html. To endorse the petition directly send an e-mail message to Michel Naud at http://us.f818.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=brightsfrance@free.fr.

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#3: LAFIF LAHKDAR CASE, UK/TUNISIA

One of the most eloquent Secularists of Tunisia, Lafif Lahkdar, is presently living in France. In 2005, he was falsely charged by a Muslim cleric living in Britain, with writing a book critical of Muhammed. Lahkdar "vehemently denied having anything to do in any way with the infamous book. Over the last decades, Lahkdar carried his intellectual and cultural fights in the open under his name when tens of other Arab intellectuals were using pseudonyms."

With others, Lahkdar joined in an Open Letter to request the UN Security Council to establish an international tribunal for the prosecution of terrorists, "individuals, groups, or entities including but not limited to, Muslim clerics, who issue religious edicts (fatwas) inciting terrorist acts."

He has also written courageously in favor of "the modernisation and rationalisation of education in general, and religious education in particular, as a central mission of the Arab intellectual elite."

To endorse a petition to Tony Blair, British Prime Minister, for the prosecution of the cleric who denounced Lafhkar, go to www.petitiononline.com/23sl82/petition.html.

For more information on the present status of Lafhkar, send an e-mail to http://us.f818.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=LLIDC@hotmail.com. They can provide links to several websites with texts of his writings, and current news.
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The few minutes you take to follow up on links and support letters will be effective, and greatly appreciated. Let us use our freedom of speech and press on behalf of the victims of fear and oppression today!

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#4: QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat."

- John Milton, "Areopagitica" (1644)

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#5: RESOURCES

For compact disks of the complete works of classic freethinkers such as Ingersoll, Paine, Jefferson, etc. produced by the Bank of Wisdom, go to http://www.bank-of-wisdom.com/.

Brave Minds, journal of the ICPF, is available from P. O. Box 41153, Elmvale, 1910 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, Ont. K1G 5K9, CANADA. For details of subscriptions write this address or send a message to http://us.f818.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=diahumanism-institute@sympatico.ca. A number of publications documenting the Islamic Inquistion are now available as well. We are hoping to develop a website for the ICPF in the near future.

Forthcoming issues of this Bulletin will continue to document current cases, and will include reviews of new books in this field.

IF you wish to continue receiving this Bulletin, just send a message to http://us.f818.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=fredwh@swbell.net, with FSB SUBSCRIBE in the subject box.